Fatal Apartment Fire Is Under InvestigationOne Firefighter And One Civilian Also Injured During Incident

One person is dead, one firefighter and one civilian were injured and several people are displaced after a two-alarm fire in a building at the Alpine Village Apartments early Saturday afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The American Red Cross is working with several people who will be displaced because of the fire.

Fire dispatchers received several 9-1-1 calls at 12:54 p.m. that a person was on fire along with an apartment in the complex at 901 Brush St. On arrival, firefighters saw heavy flames showing from the second floor of the two-story wood building with 16 apartments. Because of the intensity of the fire, a second alarm was dispatched to the fire.

The fire was starting to burn up into the attic area of the building which would jeopardize the entire building, but firefighters worked quickly to stop the fire and put the fire out. Firefighters had the fire out within 20 minutes after the first call to 9-1-1.

The fire gutted one upstairs apartment. Three other upstairs apartments had moderate damage; four downstairs apartments had minor damage due to smoke odor and very little water. The other eight units in the building had smoke odor. Damage was estimated at $200,000.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Fire Investigators, Metro Homicide Unit & Crime Scene Investigations Unit and the Clark County Coroner’s Office which is standard procedure for any fire in which a death is associated. The three agencies work together to determine what caused the fire, if any criminal activity was involved and what caused the death.

One witness on scene told the media and investigators that he was a friend of the victim in the apartment, a middle aged man. He said he noticed the door was open to his apartment and he could hear the smoke alarm activated with minor smoke coming out the door. He ran to the apartment and looked in. He saw the man sitting in a lounge chair in the living room which was on fire. He and several others used fire extinguishers in an attempt to put the fire out, but the smoke quickly thicken and the fire spread and they had to evacuate.

One lady evacuating from the apartment across the hall had breathed in too much smoke and was treated by fire paramedics on scene for smoke inhalation and released-she refused to be transported to the hospital.

One firefighter was later transported to the hospital for a minor injury to be examined at the hospital, the injury was non-life threatening.

The American Red Cross is working with management at the apartment complex to see how many people are displaced. It was not determined as of 4 p.m.

The is the third two-alarm fire in the Alpine Village Apartments this year, one was in August, which was due to careless smoking and another in October, which was electrical in nature. One firefighter was injured in that incident also.

If this fire is ruled a fire fatality, it will be the fourth one in the city of Las Vegas this year; last year there was a total of two for the entire year.